Day 5 (2)

Whew! I just did another 60 miles, putting my total around 220. I’m staying at (I don’t know how else to describe it) a trailer park in Cathlamet. It was cheap, had a hot shower, and it’s the last stop before I take a ferry across to Oregon, where I’ll have barely 30 miles till Astoria. I’m planning to stop there and did the hostel, and hopefully do some laundry.

Today I had a few especially long hills; one looked like this, and it seemed to keep going forever:

When I got to the top, I saw Mt St Helens!

As I was standing by the side of the road, a couple of old timers in a pickup pulled over to ask if I was broken down. I thanked them, and let them know I was just taking pictures.

They took a look, and the one guy said, “You can’t see the top of it.” I really wasn’t sure if he was joking, or if the clouds were that low.

After descending to the river, I saw craploads and craploads of blackberries. Imagine 5,000 times this:

I also passed through this tiny little town that have me the opportunity to stand on the bank of the Columbia river and yell “Stella!!!”

(we make bad jokes after too long pedaling in the sun, they can’t all be hilarious)

Also interesting, there were these fences that looked like they came out of Jurassic Park, along the road following the Columbia river.

I didn’t have a great way to give scale, but the big link at the top right was substantially thicker than my thumb. There were a few spots that rocks had fallen and dented out the fence. I’m sure they don’t fall often, but I didn’t stick around to find out!

That’s all for now, hopefully I’ll be posting a picture of the Goonies house tomorrow.